Can we split our land?

[ddmm86]

What is the name of your state? Michigan

We own 10.5 acres. We have a 66 ft deeded easement for ingress and egress to our property which, since it only serves one parcel is considered a driveway. We are having problems with the owner of the land where our easement runs. He only wants to allow us to use 10 feet of the 66 ft easement. I'm beginning to think that the only way we can widen our driveway would be to split our land into 4 more parcels. Since the driveway would serve more than one parcel, it would have to become a private road and the zoning requirements are different. A driveway has to be minimum 12 feet (we want at least 14). A private road needs to be minimum 22 ft wide.

So, the question is, if we parceled the land, can the neighbor deny us access to the split parcels?

[STMN]

I am not a lawyer but part of your question about subdividing seems to be more of a land use issue. For that I would think that you would need to check with your local Building and Land Use department to see if your property can be subdivided, and what possible conditions and requirements they would put on the short plat (minimum lot size, storm drainage, road/driveway construction, water/sewer, etc). If the property has been subdivided in the past there may be restrictions/time frames on when it can be subdivided again.

In general a plat does not automatically make an ingress/egress easement into a private road per se, and there are different requirements regarding widths and types of construction for private roads vs. driveways.

A 66 foot wide ingress/egress easement is a very big one, and very unusual. I have worked in the Civil Eng/Surveying field for many years and have rarely run across one that big, unless there were some type of utility transmission involved.

You might want to keep in mind that it is very costly to subdivide property. You have to figure fees for permits, surveying (topography/boundary/proposed subdivision), civil engineering, possible soils reports, and environmental impact statements, and possibly structural engineering. Add to that the fees that the governing agency might require on top of those just for plan approval (schools, fire, water, sewer, etc. buy in fees). Then you would need to add in the construction costs for the road/driveway (and they may require curbs, sidewalks, etc), required utilities, and storm drainage. It can also take quite a long time to get final approval. You have to weigh all of that with what you will be able to sell the lots for.

Also, there is a time period after you apply to subdivide, for the public to make comments and voice concerns, and those are taken into account prior to preliminary plat approval.

All of this information is based on doing a short plat where I am at (WA) so your requirements may be quite different. In general when a person goes to subdivide their property they start out doing it themselves and end up selling the project off to a developer/builder because of the up front costs and lengthy time frames.

I hope this helps some.

[HomeGuru]

Originally Posted by ddmm86

What is the name of your state? Michigan

We own 10.5 acres. We have a 66 ft deeded easement for ingress and egress to our property which, since it only serves one parcel is considered a driveway. We are having problems with the owner of the land where our easement runs. He only wants to allow us to use 10 feet of the 66 ft easement. I'm beginning to think that the only way we can widen our driveway would be to split our land into 4 more parcels. Since the driveway would serve more than one parcel, it would have to become a private road and the zoning requirements are different. A driveway has to be minimum 12 feet (we want at least 14). A private road needs to be minimum 22 ft wide.

So, the question is, if we parceled the land, can the neighbor deny us access to the split parcels?

**A: post exactly what the recorded easement agreement states with respect to usage and dimension.